These days, it’s hard not to despair at the state of the world. But all is not lost: You can go online and find a guy lip-syncing his way through the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
If, like me, you’re late to this party,* here’s the deal: A 38-year-old British actor and playwright named Ben Fensome has spent the last four months making TikTok videos in which he recreates snippets of P&P. By the beginning of last week, he’d posted 51 bite-size episodes of Budget Pride and Prejudice (collected here on YouTube) and had reached the marriage of Lydia and Wickham.
I dare you to watch without laughing out loud. I haven’t had this much fun on YouTube since the wrap-up of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.
A person wholly unfamiliar with Austen’s plot might occasionally feel lost, since Fensome isn’t recreating every beat of the five-and-a-half-hour-long original. (Although he’s coming pretty close: thus far, Budget Pride and Prejudice runs about two hours, with, presumably, a few episodes yet to go.) Needless to say, that’s no problem for those of us who are—ahem!—extremely well-acquainted with the original series, not to mention with the novel on which it’s based.
Fensome plays every role in Budget P&P—well, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner are hand puppets, but it’s basically all him—accessorizing with little more than a feather, a few safety pins, a lampshade, and a pair of glasses, plus the odd wig or three. (Wickham’s louchely tousled mane is a highlight.)
While the audio, with its many familiar and beloved voices, comes straight from the BBC’s soundtrack, it’s Fensome’s facial expressions and precision lip-syncing that bring the magic. The fun lies in seeing how, despite his anachronistic props and improvised costumes, he nonetheless manages to uncannily evoke the original actors. (Watch Fensome become Emilia Fox’s mousy little Georgiana Darcy, even while clutching a Tori Amos album to signify her love of music.)
Budget Pride and Prejudice is simultaneously an affectionate fan tribute and a send-up of same, an Austen-worthy blend of sincerity and satire. In other words, it’s a true Janeite delight.
* Once again, thanks to my indefatigable Janeite informant Tram Chamberlain for clueing me in.
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